My IMSavvy Financial Literacy Quiz Results!!!

2 words to explain the importance of good listening.

Been sick since day 1 of school last week and I'm just only recovering yesterday. Its not a good feeling to start the whole school semester 抱病在身。Really got to pop Strepsils once every two hours to cure the cough. Funny thing is, I still head down to Party World for karaoke last Saturday! Had a really good time though with great company. Recently there is forest fire in Indonesia (again) and the slight haze is making my cough worst. Good thing this 2 weeks, I am attending SEP course which give me a break from work and time to heal the illness. I hope I recover in time for wednesday :)

Learn something interesting today that I would like to share... its extracted from my leadership course text book. I think its something very meaningful and useful we all need to learn in life.


The key to good communication is not about how well a person talk, the most crucial stage is the first stage of good listening. The tradition of good listening had diluted over time and got simplified. Over times, the essence of good listening in us gets lost.

I am sometime guilty of it and was nicely reminded to listen by someone. One mouth, one ear and one brain. We must use them in the correct order. I learning to write in my mind traditional Chinese world of "listen" today. Do take a moment and simply compare this two characters of the same sound and meaning. Which character would you wanna be today?

"To listen first is to understand and develop a better plans to lead. The first step to the success of every mission is to plan .To execute the plan, you need the man. To lead the man, you need to understand. Thus the first step is naturally to LISTEN"

Religion Hate Mail From The Unknown.

I shall not post the content of the letter on this blog to avoid indirect distribution of hate message and grave misunderstanding among my fellow Singaporean of different race and religion. It came as a surprise to me when I open this stamped enveloped bearing no sender's name and address. I'm sure whoever the sender is, he/she is operating in the dark to avoid arrest and prosecution by our country law for inciting racial and religious conflict. I'm sure my house hold is not the only one to receive this letter, many others within my block or neighborhood should have receive this letter as well except for the Christian. The content of the letter are targeted at Christians and their Church. I am really taken aback by the remarks and appeal for action made by the writer. It was a very Anti-religion letter targeted at not only the Christian of Singapore but also our political system. The content also blame the religion for numerous unfortunate happenings of the past. I can't help but find that the comment were really childish and stereotypical.

I really shall not dwell into more of the content. If we all recall not so long ago, there is this couple who went around the HDB estate to distribute letter to promote Christianity but at the same time degrade the other major religion of Singapore. The couple were eventually arrested and prosecuted by law. Despite years of education and practice of coexistence in racial and religious harmony, how can such disruptive people exist within our society?

Once upon a time, a certain religion group came to my door step to preach their cause. Unfortunately for them, they either have very poor salesmanship or are generally ignorant. They directly make degrading remarks about my parents religion been one of devil worship and there are dirty spirits in my house. I was damn furious and got a very very bad impression of their religion. See what happen? Just by making bad comment about others religion, they are making another person had bad impression of their religion. It takes two hands to clap but also take two opposing hands to create a conflict. This incident happen to several of my friends family as well. I don't think any action was taken by our government that time. I was in Secondary school.

There was another time a mother and her daughter came over to preach their religious cause. They are very nice people. For a start, seeing all the elaborate altar right outside my door step, they never made a single comment about it. Thats call tolerance and acceptance. Second, they discuss with me about their religion and the good things that will come to me and my family. Well my dad was there too and although he never liked to entertain religious folks, he stayed on to listen because of their politeness and sincerity. At the end of the day, they offered their prayers to my family and went off without even a single recruitment statements. Both of them came back a week later and than one more time 2 weeks later. Man....I was so paiseh I offered them drinks. Never see them again after the third visit but they both gave me a good impression of their religion.

Frankly. Be it Christianity, Buddhism, Taoist, Hinduism, Islam or whatever -- ism religion, there is bound to be great lesson and teaching to be learn and practice but at the same time great misinterpretation and misrepresentation made by man. As a Singaporean, I got friends, classmates and colleague from all religion and races but when we are together, I don't even see the barrier at all. The only thing I always watch out for is what we eat. I seriously urge you guys and gals to just throw away any letters of such race and religion hate instead of reading and digesting and unknowingly becoming "one of them". Their words are pretty strong and persuasive. The world is already a messy place, lets not allow 3 pages of black and white text destroy what we took decades to build up. :)

Girlfriend From Hell!!!

Woah...this is one really possessive and sadistic girl friend from Hell! Pink, she been around the pop scene since year 2000 when I was still in poly. Heard this song recently on Class 95 ( my favorite radio station) and I sure thought its a song about a girl begging her boyfriend not to leave her. Turn out to be a house confinement , kidnap and torturous experience for the male gender. She just got that rough strong voice in her I don't hear in other artiste. I think Gwen Stefani does come close but Gwen Stefani sound so much sweeter and feminie. wooo....she got this nice short blonde hair too. :)

Well, back to reality, I definately don't have a girlfriend from Hell! Hahaha. School starts tomorrow. I will be having night classes on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and occasionally Saturday morning. That leaves Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday to complete assignment and do revision. Got to do lots of time management and priotization again. Hmm...think I will need lots of Brand Chicken Essence to keep my mental health in good shape.

"Thanks for all the time spend during the last weekend before my school starts. Its going to be a challenging few months ahead for the both of us. I'll do my best in school and you do your best in the ward. Lets all face the changes together for a better tomorrow :)"

Back from the Sea. Time for the challenges ahead

NEMO!!! Papa, Mama and two kids.

5 dives and 1 at night, I am finally back from Pulau Aur. A fruitful trip as compared to Tioman months ago. Finally! I saw turtle and we were all really lucky to spot it during the night dive. If the dive torch had wondered else where that night, we might all have missed out on the turtle wondering just around "Crocodile Rock". It was so so so close to me that I almost could ride on it! Got the oppurtunity to hover above the Anenome and couple of Clown Fish popularly known as NEMO. They seems to like swimming around my hands but I later realise that the Clown Fish are territorial and is actually nibbling on my hands as a defensive reaction.

On the last day dive, we had the rare oppurtunity to observe a huge school of Bump head parrot fish swimming slowly, lead by a small sea turtle. From my conversation with another diver that day, he mention that seeing a school of bumphead parrot fish is a rare sight. Damn...my underwater camera ran out of batteries and I forgot to bring the charger! sigh.

Talking about underwater photography. Pulau Aur dive trip is the first time I experiment with underwater photography. It was disappointing on the first dive not because there is nothing to shoot but the camera suddenly ran out of batteries the moment we all descend to 5m even though its indicating full power. Switched to a fresh battery back on shore took most of the picture featured on my blog today on the 2nd and third dive. Still need a lot of knowledge and practice to take better underwater pictures. Eventually I learn that due to water pressure, underwater camera batteries usually only last for 2 dive session. Still researching on this fact though.

Sadly, without bringing the batteries charger...I was not able to take more pictures of the underwater world of Pulau Aur. I missed out on really good photo shoot oppurtunity of sea turtles, squid and Stingray during the night dive and early morning dive on the last day. However I do bring back a photographic memory of the interesting encounter with sea creatures and of course the friends I made on the trip. Philip (Switzerland) , Zaiming (China) , Eva (Croatia), Cindy (Singaporean), Allan (Cindy's Angmo hubby), Nevi (Croatia), Ivo (Indonesia), Vincent (Instructor) and Jack (Instructor), once again... my new friends make this a memorable trip again just like Tioman. This photoblog is dedicated to all of you. Do bear with the ameuteristic underwater photos, its my first attempt :)

Back from the sea. Wash up my wet suit, fins, mask and booties keeping them clean from sea salt which can do all sorts of nasty things to it in the long term if left intact. Gonna be a 5 months absence before my next diving trip probably in Bali or Phuket. The focus now will shift from holiday mood to school day tempo. Just finish keying in all my lesson schedules into my Palm TX PDA. Looks like its gonna be a busy months ahead till my birthday when I will be having my last examination. Looking at the months and challenges ahead can be pretty daunting. There is more things to juggle now in life and scheduling had become an important part of the planning process. One have to wind up the stress level to attain the next stage of achievement, so I shall face the months ahead with a positive attitude. Work hard hard and smart smart too!

Changes is part of life. The only constant in life are changes. The responses and decision we all made are the intiator of changes. We all want changes for the better but sometimes things happen the other way round. In life there are things we have no control over, thats 10% of life. However we all do have 90% control over life through our responses and decision. All lesson learn are already written in books around the world in many different language, there is no new mistake but old mistake made by new people. Thats the reason why education is very very important and having a good teacher is essential to get the knowledge across. And about good teacher...

"Apparent Learning Disability Is Nothing More Or Less than Teacher Inflexibility"

Everyone can be a teacher of an issue or subject or problem solving to one another. We don't have to know everything but its important to teach the right thing instead of falsehood and discrimination. Principle of life 2: Learn Be Wise. Share Be Compassionate. Develop others potential. Hmm...can we develop potential at a very young age? Like when they are still babies???

Missed the boat...

Looks like I missed the boat this time round. Seeing some of my fellow mate getting their promotion and that extra upgrade to their salary, I can only say its just the "right time, right place and right department". Nah....I'm not feeling jealous or envy or something, I am more than happy for them but I also wonder why me not??? Well This empire is not my cup of tea anymore, I'll be happy to stay as current rank and enjoy the easy going life of a common worker. This way, I got more time to focus on my studies.

Of course!!! I need the money lah!!! Its an extra 200++ bucks in the pocket leh! Recently vitamin M running a bit in the red thanks to the money spend on diving trip and of course the hefty school fees I just paid. I'll be honest, its for the money and not the glory or pride of promotion. Sorry I just been frank, but not money minded.

Well, its my choice. Back than I got to choose between taking my school exam or going for the promotion course. I choose to go for school exam in the end. School starting in 19th July and boy will the stress come back again. For the time been, I just gonna enjoy the diving trip at Pulau Aur this weekend. :)

Am I ready for the challenges ahead?

I am counting down the days, to when my next school semester will start again on 19th July. After surviving my first part-time studies semester with very good results, I thought I will be extremely confident with the second semester of 2009. However obstacle are thrown in front of me even before I step back into the classroom again.

Never had I imagine this H1N1 virus thing will become much disruptive until the empire decided to split us up into Blue and Red team to minimize infection bringing the whole department down. Each team got to alternate work between morning shift and afternoon shift and both team are not suppose to meet each other. Unfortunately enough, with the number of positive cases raising every few days there is no end to when the split up will end. This mean I got to work shift as well! Definitely will be missing out lessons during those odd weeks I'm working afternoon shift. Goodbye to the days I have an 8 - 5 job.

I asked myself if I should just defer my studies till next year when hopefully all this H1N1 saga and team split issue is over. Its a NO... even with the semester break, my momentum is still roving and taking a long break might actually make me stop part time studies forever. Next I asked myself if I should just take lesser subjects this time round. Its a NO, by the time I tried to made amendment to my course selection, its already July 1st, busted 29th June deadline to make changes. Blame it on myself for not taking prompt action earlier on when the team split plan came into action.

I made the decision, bit the bullet and brave through this storm. I will be heading down tomorrow, on the last day of registration, to make a hefty 3000++ course fee payment. Can already feel the burn in my pocket liao. sob sob sob. I will embark on my studies as usual but not without enlisting the help of my fellow classmates. Royd will still be able to attend all the lesson thanks to the Empire Sponsorship and I got to get his help to take lecture notes and lab results during my forced absence. Called De Xian this morning to ask for his help with the Aero-Material course notes and labs. Really appreciate his generousity for offering me his entire lab report for last semester which will come real handy this time round.

Fear? Yes. In confidence? A bit. This semester will be damn challenging. Missing out the lectures and labs, I got a lot to catch up with. Even though I can get off work at 3.30pm during the morning shift period and can make good use of that extra hours to catch up with school work, I still hate missing out lesson. Its just not me, I rarely miss my lessons and obviously don't like to do so. Damn!

Lingering on the back of my mind is another slim chance of major disruption to school. I am on the reserve team for the year end Empire exercise in Australia! Time and time again, I had requested to be put out of the reserve team...time and time again rejected. Now I am assured by words that there is no way I will be activated. My years in the Empire tells me everything in black and white are true, everything in words can't always be trusted. God please...I pray....the last thing I wanna see happening is I going through all the pain of disruptive studies to only have my chance of final exam taken away just because of some "kangaroo exercise" in Australia. Spare me the pain...

Riccardo, don't give up. The inner voice said. Capitalize on the situation and shape your mind and body to circumstances. Pain is part of life, suffering is not. I wish some higher mights and beings up there will give me the power to make it through in a piece and peace.

Tuck away in the corner of the entire conflict is my life goal, my family and "someone", they are the power to spur my little steam engine forward in life. I realize its been almost 2 months since we first met in the most unexpected places and circumstances. There are things I learn and there are things yet to be known but in every moment I am grateful that we can share thoughts and words all this times. We expanded and got to know each other friends, bestie and clinche (did I spell wrongly?) who are wonderful people in their own rights. We might even had became tools of fate for our own friend "C" and "S". With the coming challenges ahead, I shall ask for nothing else more than patience and understanding. May not be around all the time but will always be there on my mind.

When the general eat, the soldiers go hungry

General and commanders enjoy a sumptuous dinner after a victorious and successful annual ceremony. In the mean time, a group of common soldiers assign to perform "horse carriage" duty nearly have to go hungry during dinner time. In the end it was the effort of an officer and some low ranking ground infantry who went to the kitchen to scavenge whatever food that are still available. In between bites of the cold pizza and chicken drumlets (probably leftovers), I realized when the someone fail to plan or plan to fail, it finally boils down to small unit decision and action to solve the problem themselves.

Even so, I sure hope that such simple things like providing food for the soldiers will be better planned in the future. It does not only hurt the moral of the soldiers but it seriously make the soldiers doubt the effectiveness of the empire when it was at the mean time putting up some elaborated ceremony to mark its strength and effectiveness. Luckily most of us are thinking soldiers and can solve problem created by other people.

The biggest irony is that the "horse" got to eat their grass before the common soldiers even smell their own food!

Side track a bit. I will always remember Micheal Jackson as a pop star who brought the whole world together in peace under his songs, as a human who is neither black or white, as a dancer who can never be emulated and a victim of base less law suit just because he love children. This is a song from MJ I like about been selfless and caring for people around us especially hungry soliders...

And MJ will always remind me of this parody of his "Beat It" by Weird Al Yankovic titled "Eat It". Soldiers need to eat dinner...